A Los Angeles lawyer was allegedly fatally shot by his brother during an argument over Christmas weekend, according to cops and a close friend.<\/p>\n
Krikor Kouyoumdjian, a 33-year-old civil rights attorney, was shot at his home in the North Hills area around 1:45 p.m. Saturday, police said.<\/p>\n
Officers rushed to the home on the 9000 block of Noble Ave. after gunfire rang out.<\/p>\n
Krikor Kouyoumdjian was allegedly shot and killed by his brother. LinkedIn<\/p>\n
An ambulance responded, but it was too late to save Kouyoumdjian, who died at the scene.<\/p>\n
The successful lawyer was shot during a heated argument with his younger brother, Alex Kouyoumdjian, 30, with whom he had a tumultuous relationship, his law partner, Jonathan Haderlein, told The Post.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have nothing nice to say about his brother or father,\u201d said Haderlein. \u201cHe was an absolute victim.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is no way he deserved this. All they ever did was take from him, and they should be ashamed of themselves,\u201d Haderlein added.<\/p>\n
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Kouyoumdjian and Haderlein were not only law partners but friends since in the gifted program at Eagle Rock Elementary in the 6th grade.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was an extremely gifted young man,\u201d Haderlein said.<\/p>\n
They met again at North Hollywood High School where they both joined the debate team.<\/p>\n
Debate became a defining passion for Kouyoumdjian, who later launched a debate program at the Center for Early Education in North Hollywood where he coached 5th and 6th graders for 14 years.<\/p>\n
\u201cDespite getting through law school, and starting his law career, he has always made that a priority that he would be there on Thursday afternoons to coach,\u201d Haderlein said. \u201cOf everything he did that was what he was the most proud of.\u201d<\/p>\n
At the time of his murder, Kouyoumdjian was living at the home with his fianc\u00e9 and elderly father who he cared for. Citizen.com<\/p>\n
Kouyoumdjian and his brother allegedly had a tumultuous relationship. H&K<\/p>\n
Kouyoumdjian became the captain of the debate team at Loyola Marymount University, and was crowned champion of the Oxford debate tournament, despite the stresses at home.<\/p>\n
Kouyoumdjian \u2014 whose Armenian surname translates roughly to \u201cson of a jeweler\u201d \u2014 spent years sleeping in a tent or his car while he poured everything he had into building a home.<\/p>\n
\u201cHis father was a successful jeweler and was the victim of a terrible armed robbery in the 90s,\u201d said Haderlein, \u201cTheir family finances after that were always uncertain.\u201d<\/p>\n
That very home, which later became the site of his tragic murder, \u201cwas his pride and joy,\u201d said Haderlein. \u201cHe transformed it from a wreck into the envy of our whole community in the best way. That is where everybody felt most comfortable and safe and where we could have the best times.\u201d<\/p>\n
At the time of his murder, Kouyoumdjian was living at the home with his fianc\u00e9 and elderly father who he cared for.<\/p>\n
Days before he was killed, Kouyoumdjian held his annual Christmas party on Dec. 20. Citizen.com<\/p>\n
Kouyoumdjian planned to get married on April 18th 2026. Instead, his fianc\u00e9 watched him die and remains deeply traumatized, Haderlein said.<\/p>\n
The couple first met through a Facebook group for law students who liked to play Dungeons & Dragons.<\/p>\n
In 2023, Kouyoumdjian and Haderlein started their own law firm aimed at taking on ethical cases that could make a real difference. They recovered millions of dollars for their clients and most notably opened a class action lawsuit against Delta Airlines claiming their carbon neutral status is false and does not counteract the climate crisis, the Guardian reported.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis year, it had been a really exciting time for the firm. We had a lot of excitement about getting to do law on moral issues that we cared about,\u201d said Haderlein.<\/p>\n
Days before he was killed, Kouyoumdjian held his annual Christmas party on Dec. 20, raffling off handcrafted items from his woodworking shop. Among his favorites this year were salt-and-pepper mills shaped like chess pieces.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not clear what the fatal argument was about.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s hard to put logic to these things. Gun violence between family members \u2026 it\u2019s an unspeakable tragedy,\u201d Haderlein said.<\/p>\n
The motive and details of the shooting are still under investigation, the LAPD said. The suspect was arrested at the scene. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Los Angeles lawyer was allegedly fatally shot by his brother during an argument over Christmas weekend, according…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":84205,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[2136,9340,1016,9,11,10,3980,58],"class_list":{"0":"post-84204","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-california","9":"tag-lawyers","10":"tag-los-angeles","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-new-york-headlines","13":"tag-new-york-news","14":"tag-shootings","15":"tag-us-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84204","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=84204"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84204\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/84205"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84204"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84204"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84204"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}